When you were young, did you want to be an astronaut or a doctor? This episode's guests were both. 

Host Dr. Victoria Lee is joined by Bob Thirsk and Dave Williams, two Canadians who began their careers as physicians before becoming record-setting astronauts and health care administrators. 

Bob and Dave share how space flight and health care might have more in common than you think, from intense training and robotics to virtual health and a responsibility to take care of our home planet.

Chapters
What led Bob and Dave to becoming astronauts? - 2:50
Canada’s role in space exploration - 5:46
Being a physician prepares you to be an astronaut - 8:13
Space exploration drives innovation in health care - 11:30
We live in a global village - 25:05
Returning to health care after retiring as astronauts - 32:24

Guest bios
Robert “Bob” Thirsk was born in the Fraser Health region, in New Westminster, and holds the Canadian record for most time spent in space, at over 204 days. He is a former engineer, family physician and vice-president of Public, Government and Institute Affairs for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. He currently serves as a director on several social purpose organizations. 

Dave Williams spent more than 17 hours walking in space – a Canadian record. He is a former emergency physician, director of the Department of Emergency Services at Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, and president and CEO of Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket, Ontario. He is currently an adjunct professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto and McGill University.

About The Heart of It
Every episode, Dr. Victoria Lee, president and CEO of Fraser Health, takes listeners to the heart of health care, where passion, dedication and innovation drive individual, community and planetary health.  

Listen to and watch more episodes of The Heart of It here. Did you catch our previous episode, which was a conversation about death and dying? Subscribe to our channel so you don’t miss a beat.
 
This episode of The Heart of It was recorded on the traditional, ancestral and unceded shared territories of the q̓ ic̓əy̓ (Katzie), q̓ʷɑ:n̓ƛ̓ən̓ (Kwantlen), kʷikʷəƛ̓ əm (Kwikwetlem), Qayqayt and Semiahmoo First Nations, treaty lands of the sc̓əwaθən məsteyəxʷ (Tsawwassen) First Nation, and on the home of the Surrey-Delta Métis Association.

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It’s never easy to talk about end-of-life care preferences – whether they be for ourselves, a loved one or someone in our care. But understanding what matters most as we journey to the end of our lives is so important. Join us for a gentle and impactful conversation about palliative care, advance care planning and the path to end of life.

Chapters
What is palliative care? - 00:50
How do patients enter end-of-life care? - 6:28
Advance care planning - 10:19
Medical Assistance in Dying - 19:18
Home support - 30:25
Hospice care - 31:58
Culturally safe conversations about end-of-life care - 35:38
Who touched your heart? - 38:09

Guest bios
Dr. Andrew Collins has been providing end-of-life care to patients and their identified family members since 2016.

Tammy Dyson has worked in the field of end-of-life care in the Lower Mainland and the California Bay Area for more than 25 years as a social work clinician, consultant and educator.

About The Heart of It
Every episode, Dr. Victoria Lee, president and CEO of Fraser Health, takes listeners to the heart of health care, where passion, dedication and innovation drive individual, community and planetary health. 

Listen to and watch more episodes of The Heart of It here. And be sure to subscribe to The Heart of It in your favourite podcast player app so that you don’t miss a beat.
 
This episode of The Heart of It was recorded on the traditional, ancestral and unceded shared territories of the q̓ ic̓əy̓ (Katzie), q̓ʷɑ:n̓ƛ̓ən̓ (Kwantlen), kʷikʷəƛ̓ əm (Kwikwetlem), Qayqayt and Semiahmoo First Nations, treaty lands of the sc̓əwaθən məsteyəxʷ (Tsawwassen) First Nation, and on the home of the Surrey-Delta Métis Association.

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When emergencies happen, our responses need to be quick and coordinated. But from climate events to pathogens and IT challenges, we don't know when or how our planning will be tested.

This episode’s guest is Tracie Jones, who manages Fraser Health’s emergency preparedness and the BC Biocontainment Treatment and Training Centre. Tracie walks host Dr. Victoria Lee through recent examples of when our emergency plans were put into action and how we’re preparing for what might come next.

Chapters
What is emergency preparedness?
The past decade: flooding, heat, wildfires and more
The recent CrowdStrike outage
Fraser Valley flooding in 2021
Supporting wildfire evacuees from Yellowknife  in 2023
Community evacuations
Preparing for pathogens

Guest bio
Tracie Jones is a nurse by training with experience in Emergency Departments and Intensive Care Units, as a Forensic Nurse Examiner, and in the specialty of Mass Gathering Medicine.  

About The Heart of It
Every episode, Dr. Victoria Lee, president and CEO of Fraser Health, takes listeners to the heart of health care, where passion, dedication and innovation drive individual, community and planetary health.  

Listen to and watch more episodes of The Heart of It here. Did you catch our previous episode, which went behind the scenes of our emergency departments? Be sure to subscribe to The Heart of It in your favourite podcast player app so that you don’t miss a beat.
 
This episode of The Heart of It was recorded on the traditional, ancestral and unceded shared territories of the q̓ ic̓əy̓ (Katzie), q̓ʷɑ:n̓ƛ̓ən̓ (Kwantlen), kʷikʷəƛ̓ əm (Kwikwetlem), Qayqayt and Semiahmoo First Nations, treaty lands of the sc̓əwaθən məsteyəxʷ (Tsawwassen) First Nation, and on the home of the Surrey-Delta Métis Association.

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We know it can be scary or overwhelming to visit an emergency department, and you may wait longer than you’d like to receive care. We’re here to care for you and look after you – and all the 2,000 people who visit our emergency departments every day.

This episode goes behind the scenes of our emergency departments to explore the challenges facing them, how patients are triaged and what contributes to wait times. Host Dr. Victoria Lee is joined by Dr. Craig Murray, an emergency physician at Surrey Memorial Hospital, and Mary Van Osch, who leads our Emergency Medicine Network.

Chapters
What is an emergency department? – 1:30
Know your care options – 3:30
The triage process – 5:09
Wait times – 6:53
Why are more people visiting emergency departments? – 17:33
What happens when someone is admitted to the hospital? – 26:29
Why you may be asked the same questions many times – 42:01

Guest bios
Dr. Craig Murray is an emergency physician as well as the co-regional medical director and co-regional department head for Emergency Medicine at Fraser Health.

Mary Van Osch is the regional lead for Fraser Health’s Emergency Network.

About The Heart of It
Every episode, Dr. Victoria Lee, president and CEO of Fraser Health, takes listeners to the heart of health care, where passion, dedication and innovation drive individual, community and planetary health.  

Listen to and watch more episodes of The Heart of It here. And be sure to subscribe to The Heart of It in your favourite podcast player app so that you don’t miss a beat.
 
This episode of The Heart of It was recorded on the traditional, ancestral and unceded shared territories of the q̓ ic̓əy̓ (Katzie), q̓ʷɑ:n̓ƛ̓ən̓ (Kwantlen), kʷikʷəƛ̓ əm (Kwikwetlem), Qayqayt and Semiahmoo First Nations, treaty lands of the sc̓əwaθən məsteyəxʷ (Tsawwassen) First Nation, and on the home of the Surrey-Delta Métis Association.

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Bernice Oxley is our guest this week for a conversation about the many ways we use technology to look inside bodies so that we can diagnose, treat and monitor medical conditions. This includes X-rays, CT scans, MRIs, mammograms and ultrasounds. 

Bernice is a regional director for Medical Imaging at Fraser Health. She takes us behind the scenes of medical imaging, sharing how we performed 13,000 more CT scans and MRIs last year than the year before, what happens during imaging, how to prepare, and how to turn mammograms into memorable experiences.

Chapters

What is medical imaging? 

Wait times                                             

Why you were able to get a CT scan at 3:00 a.m.

What happens during a scan or X-ray and how to prepare

New technologies 

Making mammograms memorable

Guest bio

Bernice has been a technologist for 38 years and is the director of Medical Imaging for our Fraser East sites. She is passionate about medical imaging, especially in introducing it to students and focusing on recruitment.

About The Heart of It
Every episode, Dr. Victoria Lee, president and CEO of Fraser Health, takes listeners to the heart of health care, where passion, dedication and innovation drive individual, community and planetary health.  

Listen to and watch more episodes of The Heart of It here. And be sure to subscribe to The Heart of It in your favourite podcast player app so that you don’t miss a beat.
 
This episode of The Heart of It was recorded on the traditional, ancestral and unceded shared territories of the q̓ ic̓əy̓ (Katzie), q̓ʷɑ:n̓ƛ̓ən̓ (Kwantlen), kʷikʷəƛ̓ əm (Kwikwetlem), Qayqayt and Semiahmoo First Nations, treaty lands of the sc̓əwaθən məsteyəxʷ (Tsawwassen) First Nation, and on the home of the Surrey-Delta Métis Association.

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This episode covers many of the mental health supports provided by Fraser Health. If you visit an emergency department or mental health centre in your community, contact our virtual health service or receive a referral, our teams are here to help you. 

Host Dr. Victoria Lee is joined by Dr. Anson Koo, Fraser Health’s program medical director and regional department head for Psychiatry and Mental Health. They discuss our community-based and digital services, why we’re seeing more mental health concerns over time, and how we decide to keep someone in the hospital against their will because we’re concerned about their mental health.

Chapters

How to start getting help for your mental health

Virtual services

Stigma is reducing, but still exists                     

Coming to an emergency department with a mental health concern

Children and youth mental health

Involuntary admissions and the Mental Health Act

Guest bio

Dr. Anson Koo provides operational and medical leadership for the Mental Health and Psychiatry clinical programs in Fraser Health. His clinical focus lies in adult psychiatry and inpatient psychiatry, and his broader areas of interest include medical education and medical administration.

Learn more

Mental health services

Emergency help for mental health concerns

Community mental health centres

Virtual psychiatry unit

Mental Health Act

About The Heart of It
Every episode, Dr. Victoria Lee, president and CEO of Fraser Health, takes listeners to the heart of health care, where passion, dedication and innovation drive individual, community and planetary health.  

Listen to and watch more episodes of The Heart of It here. And be sure to subscribe to The Heart of It in your favourite podcast player app so that you don’t miss a beat.

This episode of The Heart of It was recorded on the traditional, ancestral and unceded shared territories of the q̓ ic̓əy̓ (Katzie), q̓ʷɑ:n̓ƛ̓ən̓ (Kwantlen), kʷikʷəƛ̓ əm (Kwikwetlem), Qayqayt and Semiahmoo First Nations, treaty lands of the sc̓əwaθən məsteyəxʷ (Tsawwassen) First Nation, and on the home of the Surrey-Delta Métis Association.

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People with concerns related to their substance use come from all walks of life and have different treatment goals, so we have a range of services that help us meet them where they’re at.

In this important conversation, Dr. Victoria Lee is joined by Dr. Sarah Mark to discuss many topics, including treatment programs, culturally appropriate services and why “resiliency” is one word that Dr. Mark would use to describe the future of health care.

Guest bio
Dr. Sarah Mark is a co-program medical director for Addiction Medicine and Substance Use Services (AMSUS) with Fraser Health, and its regional medical lead for AMSUS education.  

Learn more

Substance use services
Drug checking
Rapid Access to Addiction Care Clinic
Virtual health
Overdose prevention service and sites
Roshni Clinic

About The Heart of It
Every episode, Dr. Victoria Lee, president and CEO of Fraser Health, takes listeners to the heart of health care, where passion, dedication and innovation drive individual, community and planetary health.  

Listen to and watch more episodes of The Heart of It here. And be sure to subscribe to The Heart of It in your favourite podcast player app so that you don’t miss a beat.
 
This episode of The Heart of It was recorded on the traditional, ancestral and unceded shared territories of the q̓ ic̓əy̓ (Katzie), q̓ʷɑ:n̓ƛ̓ən̓ (Kwantlen), kʷikʷəƛ̓ əm (Kwikwetlem), Qayqayt and Semiahmoo First Nations, treaty lands of the sc̓əwaθən məsteyəxʷ (Tsawwassen) First Nation, and on the home of the Surrey-Delta Métis Association.

Send us a text

With a heart-shaped body, warm smile and outstretched arms, Fraser, our digital health care navigator, is here to help patients find the right service for their needs. They are just one of our many digital health services we offer to help people find information and support from the comfort of their homes.

In this captivating episode, Dr. Victoria Lee is joined by Jennifer MacGregor, and Dr. Amyeen Hassanali to guide us through how artificial intelligence is transforming patients’ and providers’ experiences, whether it be through personalized nutrition guidance, translation services, or by using our virtual psychiatry unit. 

Guest bios

Dr. Hassanali serves as the chief medical information officer at Fraser Health and concurrently holds a part-time role as a hospitalist andsite medical director at Ridge Meadows Hospital.

Jennifer Macgregor is our vice president of Digital Patient and Provider Experience. She has over 25 years of experience working with health systems globally in digital health.

Learn more:

Learn more about Fraser, our digital health care navigator: https://www.fraserhealth.ca/patients-and-visitors/meet-fraser 

Visit Fraser: https://askfraser.fraserhealth.ca/engage/dfd/home 

About The Heart of It

Every episode, Dr. Victoria Lee, president and CEO of Fraser Health, takes listeners to the heart of health care, where passion, dedication and innovation drive individual, community and planetary health. 

Listen to and watch more episodes of The Heart of It here. And be sure to subscribe to The Heart of It in your favourite podcast player app so that you don’t miss a beat.
 
This episode of The Heart of It was recorded on the traditional, ancestral and unceded shared territories of the q̓ ic̓əy̓ (Katzie), q̓ʷɑ:n̓ƛ̓ən̓ (Kwantlen), kʷikʷəƛ̓ əm (Kwikwetlem), Qayqayt and Semiahmoo First Nations, treaty lands of the sc̓əwaθən məsteyəxʷ (Tsawwassen) First Nation, and on the home of the Surrey-Delta Métis Association.

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What do the Texas Hold ‘Em Challenge and prescriptions for exercise have in common? They’re two non-medical examples of how we’re helping older adults avoid frailty and age healthily and independently in their homes. 

In this episode, Dr. Victoria Lee is joined by Dr. Grace Park and Paramjit Rai to discuss the many home-support programs within Fraser Health that are improving the health and well-being of older adults and providing respite for family caregivers. 

Guest bios

Dr. Grace Park is a family physician and the regional medical director for Home and Community Care at Fraser Health. 

Paramjit Rai is a health care aide/activity worker in Fraser Health’s South Asian Adult Day Program. 

Learn more:

Day Program for Older Adults: https://www.fraserhealth.ca/Service-Directory/Services/Seniors---Community-Services/day-programs-for-older-adults

Home Support services: https://www.fraserhealth.ca/Service-Directory/Services/home-and-community-care/home-support-services

South Asian Day Program for Older Adults Program participants take on the Texas Hold ‘Em Challenge: https://www.instagram.com/fraserhealth/reel/C4_sUduvzMS/ 

About The Heart of It

Every episode, Dr. Victoria Lee, president and CEO of Fraser Health, takes listeners to the heart of health care, where passion, dedication and innovation drive individual, community and planetary health. 

Listen to and watch more episodes of The Heart of It here. And be sure to subscribe to The Heart of It in your favourite podcast player app so that you don’t miss a beat.
 
This episode of The Heart of It was recorded on the traditional, ancestral and unceded shared territories of the q̓ ic̓əy̓ (Katzie), q̓ʷɑ:n̓ƛ̓ən̓ (Kwantlen), kʷikʷəƛ̓ əm (Kwikwetlem), Qayqayt and Semiahmoo First Nations, treaty lands of the sc̓əwaθən məsteyəxʷ (Tsawwassen) First Nation, and on the home of the Surrey-Delta Métis Association.

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Did you know that we perform more than 100,000 surgeries every year? This episode explores how we prepare patients for surgeries, how we support their recoveries, and everything that happens in between to help them have positive experiences.

Join host Dr. Victoria Lee for a fascinating conversation with Dr. Dave Konkin and Dr. Feisal Mohamedali, our regional medical directors and department heads for Surgery and Anesthesiology, respectively.

Guest bios

Dr. Dave Konkin is Fraser Health’s regional medical director and department head for Surgery. His expertise lies in performing various major abdominal operations, including gastrointestinal, colorectal, gallbladder, trauma and hernia surgeries. 

Dr. Feisal Mohamedali is Fraser Health’s regional medical director and department head for Anesthesiology. His team specializes in caring for seriously injured patients resulting from car accidents, gunshots and stabbings.

Learn more

Fraser Health virtual health: https://www.fraserhealth.ca/patients-and-visitors/virtual-health

About The Heart of It
Every episode, Dr. Victoria Lee, president and CEO of Fraser Health, take listeners to the heart of health care, where passion, dedication and innovation drive individual, community and planetary health.
 
Listen to and watch more episodes of The Heart of It here. And be sure to subscribe to The Heart of It in your favourite podcast player app so that you don’t miss a beat.
 
This episode of The Heart of It was recorded on the traditional, ancestral and unceded shared territories of the q̓ ic̓əy̓ (Katzie), q̓ʷɑ:n̓ƛ̓ən̓ (Kwantlen), kʷikʷəƛ̓ əm (Kwikwetlem), Qayqayt and Semiahmoo First Nations, treaty lands of the sc̓əwaθən məsteyəxʷ (Tsawwassen) First Nation, and on the home of the Surrey-Delta Métis Association.

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